News from the Library of Congress

For release: November 29, 2000

The Coca-Cola Company Donates 50 Years of
Television Commercials Reflecting World Culture
To the Library of Congress

20,000 Ads Are Largest Gift of Corporate
Archives in Library's History

The Library of Congress today announced that The
Coca-Cola Company, celebrating its 50th
anniversary of television advertising, is
donating its entire collection of historic
television commercials as part of the Library's
Bicentennial Gifts to the Nation program. The
donation, which will eventually exceed 20,000
television ads, represents the largest donation
of corporate advertising in the Library's
200-year history.

The Library of Congress, the world's largest
library, has the largest and most comprehensive
collection of American and internationally
produced films and television broadcasts in the
world.

The Gifts to the Nation program encourages
benefactors to donate rare and important
acquisitions to the Library's national
collection. Donations from more than 30
countries and private donors range from a
Beethoven letter to a collection of Pablo
Picasso etchings. During its Bicentennial year,
the Library has undertaken to enrich its
universal collections -- 120 million items in
460 languages -- to reflect Librarian of
Congress James H. Billington's commitments to
international cultural understanding and the use
of technology to provide access to historical
information in a digital age.

"From our earliest days as a Republic, when land
sales and stagecoach schedules were promoted,
advertising has been a vibrant activity in
America," said Dr. Billington. "This gift from
Coca-Cola will enrich the nation's largest, most
diverse collection of broadcast advertisements,
dating from the 1940s, as well as our
substantial collection of foreign-produced film
and television broadcasts."

The Coca-Cola gift reflects five decades of
local cultures around the world and will provide
an extraordinary resource to researchers and
historians of popular culture. The collection
will be cataloged and digitized and eventually
made accessible online.

Doug Daft, chairman and chief executive officer,
said, "The Coca-Cola Company is excited and
proud to be making this gift to the Library of
Congress and the world. Throughout history,
people everywhere have built relationships with
each other by telling stories and sharing
experiences. For the past 115 years, Coca-Cola
has become an integral part of peoples' lives by
helping to tell these stories.

"This collection of Coca-Cola's broadcast
advertising is a mirror of the stories of the
past half-century. It reflects the close
relationships with people that Coca-Cola has
forged. It also provides a powerful glimpse into
the development of popular culture that
ultimately helps us better understand ourselves
and our future," he added.

The gift will be conveyed to the Library over
the next three to five years. The collection
will cover the early 1950s to the present and
will include both U.S. and international ads,
from the Company's portfolio of brands.
Beginning November 29 the Library of Congress
Web site (www.loc.gov) will include a
preview of the collection featuring historical information
and images of Coca-Cola television advertising.

A highlight of the collection is a compilation
of outtakes from the famous "Hilltop" commercial
of 1971, showing various scenes and actors that
did not appear in the final version. Other spots
include "Mean Joe Greene" (a television
commercial that was so popular it spurred its
own made-for-TV movie), the first "Polar Bear"
spot, some experimental color television ads
from 1964, some early black-and-white ads from
The D'Arcy Agency in 1953 and contemporary
international ads from Malaysia, Tunisia and
Japan.

The Coca-Cola Company's gift to the Library,
which will be announced tonight at an
invitational reception and program in the Great
Hall of the Library of Congress, is expected to
be continual, with additions being made to the
collection on a regular basis as new advertising
is produced.

The
Library of Congress

The Library of Congress includes the
Congressional Research Service, the nation's
largest think tank for Congress; the Copyright
Office of the United States, and a National
Library Service for the Blind and Physically
Handicapped. It is the world's largest library,
containing more than 120 million items in nearly
every language and format. Its collections
include the papers of 23 presidents and the
papers of eminent Americans such as Booker T.
Washington, Walt Whitman, Irving Berlin, Susan
B. Anthony and Bob Hope. Other treasures include
the first printed book in the Western world,
early baseball cards, historic comic and cook
books, and millions of maps and atlases,
photographs, posters, microfilms, rare books and
music manuscripts. The Library also is home to
the world's most comprehensive collection of
films and television broadcast materials in the
world. It is one of the world's leading
providers of free high-quality content on the
Internet. Its Website handled 1 billion
electronic transactions last year and offers 5
million items of American history and culture
online through its National Digital Library
Program.

The
Coca-Cola Company

The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest
beverage company and is the leading producer and
marketer of soft drinks. Along with Coca-Cola,
recognized as the world's best- known brand, the
Company markets four of the world's top five
soft drink brands, including diet Coke, Fanta
and Sprite. Through the world's largest
distribution system, consumers in nearly 200
countries enjoy the Company's products at a rate
of more than 1 billion servings each day.

Photos
Available

Color stills from select Coca-Cola commercials to accompany this story
are available and can be retrieved in digital form by media without charge
from Wieck Photo Database at 972-392-0888 or www.wieck.com (external link).